Title: Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress
Version Tested: Xbox One
Available On: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Third Person Action Shooter
Official Site: https://justcause.com/en-us
Release Date: March 15th, 2016
Where to Buy: Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Local Retailer
Rico Rodriguez is back in the first release of the Air, Land and Sea expansion pack titled Sky Fortress for Just Cause 3. We find our hero once again fighting for the people of Medici as mysterious drones begin to show up which lead Rico to a massive Sky Fortress above the city. This airship belongs to the Eden Corporation, which has quite an interest in harvesting the Bavarium around the city. With the help of Sheldon and a new Bavarium powered wing suit, Rico must uncover just what the Eden Corporation is up to and protect his people at all costs.
One of the things that I really liked about Just Cause 3 was the various ways to do battle and travel the map. The parachute, grapple gun, and wingsuit opened up such a wide range of possibilities and that has been improved upon with the new Bavarium powered wingsuit in Sky Fortress. The suit can only provide a limited boost due to the risk of instability but with this boost, you can sustain flight indefinitely. In addition to the boost the wingsuit comes with, onboard machine guns and missiles can be modded to become more powerful by completing challenges just like your other equipment. Sky Fortress also brings the new “Bavarium Splitter” Assault rifle as well as a personal defense drone to add to your already robust inventory of weapons. While the wingsuit is a whole heck of a lot of fun, the Sky Fortress does have a downside.
My biggest complaint about the Sky Fortress DLC is the length of the campaign, which can be completed in about an hour or two. If you are a completionist and have already liberated every place on your map in the regular game, the playtime for you could be very short here. The ones who will get the most worth out of this DLC will be players who are new to the game or still have more areas to liberate in Medici. I hadn’t played Just Cause 3 in a little over a month but the Sky Fortress DLC coupled with the new wing-suit, reinvigorated my interest to liberate some areas using my new toy. Four new challenges are also included in the DLC, and when completed will give you the option to upgrade your wingsuit. I recommend completing them as soon as they are available. The upgrades will allow you to boost longer, improve cool down rates and fire more missiles among other things.
The story itself is fairly basic and seemingly closes its loop following the last mission. Mystery drones have shown up and are attempting to harvest Bavarium from the ground. The drones turn out to be the property of the Eden Corporation which we find out from Sheldon are very bad news. An unknown woman is seemingly in charge and hell bent on getting what she wants and squashing Rico for being such a pest and getting in the way. The story provided minimal emotional investment but then again, I’m not necessarily playing Just Cause 3 for the story but for being a harbinger of destruction. So stop the drones and Eden Corporation by blowing everything sky high…the end. There are some fun nods to popular films and culture hidden within the dialogue through the campaign, particularity from the mystery woman in the airship so be sure to try and catch that during a playthrough.
The wingsuit will take a short time to get a handle on and some like myself may find it incredibly frustrating at first. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to master the controls when just starting out but once I did, strafing run became like second nature. I don’t feel this is a negative of the game but more like valuable information depending on whether you’re a gamer that has the patience or not. My oldest son spent about five minutes with the wingsuit before getting so frustrated that he asked to switch to Minecraft or Roblox.
Despite the short campaign, Sky Fortress provides some great fun by introducing the rocket powered wingsuit into gameplay. The wingsuit can also be used to play through the entire game again if one so desires to alter the style of play from your first go around. For those who have already completed the game and may have no desire to go back and beat the same missions again, the Sky Fortress DLC may come off as slightly unsatisfying. You can also swap between the original wingsuit and rocket powered one in the menu to suit your style of play. The next release in the DLC pack is the “Land” expansion which will have Rico taking over some type of weaponized Mech robot. Few details are known but we can expect a release sometime in the summer of 2016.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sEUrJSWOQg[/embedyt]
[gap height=”15″]
Have you played the Sky Fortress DLC? If so, what did you think of the campaign time and the new rocket powered wingsuit? Be sure to let us know in the comments below and check back for future updates.
- Gameplay: The Bavarium powered wingsuit completely changes the style of play
- Graphics: Nothing new here except for the comic style cut scenes
- Sound: The Bavarium Splitter sounds wicked, fun nods to popular culture in the dialogue
- Presentation: First DLC with two more to go. Fun but short
[review]
